New Rules of Car Buying: Enthusiasts Shop Differently

LAWYERS NEVER ASK QUESTIONS without knowing the answers. We as journalists subscribe to the op- posite view, but conducting a reader survey falls in between. With this one, we sought to tease out some

numbers regarding car buying. Here's one: 80 percent of respondents were "very satisfied" or "extremely satisfied" with their dealership experience. If that contradicts conventional wisdom, it does explain why 68 percent of respondents would not buy or lease a vehicle without visiting a dealership and 84 percent would not buy or lease without a test drive. Indeed, if the bricks-and- mortar dealership system is going to be overthrown, our survey indicates that Silicon Valley might ally with car enthusiasts. While only 34 percent of nonenthusiasts said they would purchase a car over the Internet, 54 percent of enthusiasts would be inclined to do so. We've highlighted more of these "significant statistical differences" (as our research department calls them) between enthusiasts and nonenthusiasts in the accompanying graphics.

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THE DIGITAL GENERATION is expected to influence every aspect of the car business, but it's a process that still seems nascent. Predictably, our survey shows that car buyers aged 18 to 34 are more likely to have recently purchased their first car than other age groups and are more likely to buy used. And young buyers are more inclined to go shopping in search of a safer car or because of a lifestyle change. Which is what kids have been doing forever— replacing a junker shortly after landing a decent-paying job.

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Younger men are more likely than others to sell their old car online, probably a byproduct of more young buyers being dissat- isfied with trade-in offers than other age groups. Despite the ste- reotype of youthful impatience, men aged 18 to 34 are more likely than others to take more than a year researching their purchase. And yet, younger buyers are more likely than older ones to make taking delivery of a new car their only trip to a dealer.

It follows that young people are the most likely to use mobile devices for research, prioritizing up-to-date dealer inventories and vehicle-history reports. But younger buyers are also more interested in test drives than other age groups. Indeed, young- er buyers can be shockingly conventional. When asked if they would purchase a new car over the Internet, 56 percent were dis- inclined to do so, matching the number of respondents over 55 who reject what is expected to someday be the holy grail of car commerce.